The Friendship Files: Good Witch or Bad Witch
by LanieSullivan
Summary: This is a bit of a departure from my prior FF stories as I wanted to expand it a bit to include the burgeoning friendship between Francine and Amanda. This is a filler for the episode "Wrong Number" and a companion piece to an earlier story in this series, "Chocolate Cure."


Disclaimer: "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" is copyrighted to Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions. The plot is mine, but not the characters. This story is meant for enjoyment purposes only. No infringement is intended.

Author's Note: This story is to expand my FF series just a bit to include bits of the burgeoning friendship between Amanda and Francine. This one is for "Wrong Number" and a companion piece to "Chocolate Cure."

Francine left the Agency infirmary after being checked over by Dr. McJohn to make sure that she wasn't dosed with anything during her captivity and setting up a required appointment with Dr. Pfaff to ensure that her mental state was stable. She was a woman on a mission. She took the elevator up to the bullpen level in search of her quarry. "I can't believe I'm doing this," she muttered as the doors opened on the desired floor. She took a deep breath and strode purposefully down the corridor and entered the bullpen, her eyes scanning the room. "Damn!' she cursed when she realized that her intended target wasn't there. That meant a trip upstairs to the Q Bureau and being subjected to Lee's teasing. She'd hoped to be able to make this easier on herself if there were more people around.

She let out a deep sigh and returned back the way she'd come, traipsing to the outside elevator. _What the hell am I going to say to her,_ she wondered morosely. As the doors opened on the ground floor, she stepped out, gave a cordial nod to Mrs. Marston and trudged up the stairs, all the while urging herself to breathe normally. She paused just outside the door of the Q, hand poised on the doorknob as she listened for movement or conversation within. Hearing nothing she opened the door, but was startled as she entered to hear a loud thunk.

"Um...hi..." she began hesitantly to the only occupant of the room.

"Hi," Amanda replied brightly. "How are you feeling?" He eyes and her tone of voice were dripping with concern.

 _Great! She had to make this harder by being so nice._ "Here, let me give you a hand with that," Francine replied as she gestured to the folding table that Amanda was trying to set up.

"That'd be great. This table has been giving me fits. The legs don't want to lock in place like they should."

Francine stepped toward her to help her and the two women worked in silence to set up the table each lost in their own thoughts. Amanda hadn't failed to notice that Francine had dodged her question in her typical fashion while Francine pondered just how to properly express her gratitude to Amanda for helping with her rescue, but without leading to the other woman probing too much as she was prone to doing.

Once the table was securely unfolded and stable, they pushed it up against Lee's desk. "What's this for, anyway?" Francine asked Amanda curiously.

"Well, Mr. and Mrs. Towne are downstairs in the conference room being debriefed and since the Agency put them through so much, I thought it would be nice to do something in return for them and Lee agreed with me. I ordered Chinese food and it should be here by the time he gets done talking to them. He said he'd wait for it downstairs when they're done."

Francine's stomach let out a loud growl at the mention of Chinese food. That's when it hit her that she hadn't eaten properly in days. "That sounds..." She let out a sigh that the invitation didn't include her, "...nice."

"Oh, you're invited too, Francine," Amanda chimed in with a cheery smile. "I ordered your favorite, Kung Pao Chicken."

"You did?" Francine blinked in surprise. She never ceased to be amazed by Amanda's kindness and generosity or how she noticed everything, including what her favorite was.

"Of course I did. You didn't think I'd let you starve, did you? I mean, I bet with all that you've been through, you haven't eaten a decent meal in days."

"Yeah." She let out a dry chuckle. Leave it to Amanda to try to mother her too, just as she did with everyone around her. She'd observed enough of her doing that with Lee to realize that the housewife simply couldn't turn off that mothering instinct. While Lee seemed to relish it, she did not. She didn't need another mother, so she responded the only way she knew how, "Terrorists are _real_ big on making sure their hostages eat a well-balanced meal."

Shaking off Francine's sarcasm, Amanda replied sweetly, "You know, I thought of that. Why do you think I ordered plenty of food? If I'd had some more time, I'd have just made something myself. A home-cooked meal is always better than takeout, but I was just so busy with this assignment since we were on a deadline. But I thought this would make a nice substitute since we all like Chinese food."

"I-" Francine was stunned into silence for a moment at the other woman's ability to bounce back from what she had to have known was an attack of cynicism. Recovering quickly, she realized that Amanda had just given her the perfect opening to do what she'd come to do. "From what I hear, you've been doing a lot of quick thinking while I was..." She let out a tiny shudder at the memory of her experience. "You know...when I was...um...away."

"How do you mean?" Amanda questioned.

"Well, I mean...er..." _Why was this so hard?_ "Well...Billy..." _That's it...Billy,_ she beamed inwardly. "He told me that you were the one who uncovered the Soviet plot to trade Tuttle...or whatever his name is...for Towne. Or at least he showed me the report...listing you as the..." She let out a grudging sigh. "...Agent of record."

"Oh, that," Amanda responded with a dismissive wave of her hand as she began setting the table with plates.

"Oh, that?" The blonde gazed at her questioningly. "Yes, that! You only saved my life!" she retorted testily.

"Look, Francine, all I really did was look at all the pieces until I saw how they fit together...kind of like the jigsaw puzzles my boys like to put together. Just like a puzzle, I figured they all had to fit together somehow and they did. I didn't even know it was you the Russians had until much later."

"Oh, I see," Francine muttered coolly."So, I suppose if you had known it was me, you'd have just stopped what you were doing and let me rot there."

Dropping the stack of plates to the table and posing her hands on her hips, Amanda glowered at Francine. "You're one of the smartest people around here, so you have to be smart enough to know that I didn't mean it _that_ way. Do you honestly believe that, Francine? That I'd leave you there to rot? Especially after all we've been through together?"

"You and me?" Francine snorted incredulously. "What have we ever been through together?"

"How about that Private Party thing? I thought we worked pretty well together as a team."

"I'm sure you did since you had me doing all the disgusting grunt work."

Unfazed, Amanda added, "And there's the freezer thing." As she reflected on their time in the freezer and remembered Francine's snarky "white horse" crack and her brief moment of vulnerability, she couldn't help wondering if the other woman was really jaded enough to believe that no one would rescue her. Just what had she been through in her life that made her feel so unloved?

"Oh, you mean the freezer thing when you called me a witch?" _Cool your jets, Desmond,_ she admonished herself. This wasn't going anywhere nearly as smoothly as she'd hoped. Why was it so hard for her to simply thank Amanda for her help?

"Oh, come on, Francine, you know I didn't mean that. I just meant...well, you and I haven't-"

"Don't, Amanda," the other woman replied in a softer tone. "I know I deserved it for the way I've treated you. This isn't easy for me, you know...letting new people in." When Amanda only nodded in acknowledgement and returned to her task, she continued, "What I really wanted to say is that I'm...well, I'm grateful to you. Even with as nasty as I've been to you, you were still willing to go out on a limb for me and from what I hear, you even risked your partnership with Lee in the process."

Amanda's mouth twitched as she tried to suppress a giggle. "You heard about that too, huh?"

"You two having a shouting match in Billy's office?" Francine laughed. "Oh, yeah, it's all anyone's talking about right now. AND how you proved that Glinda, the good witch has more brains than the Scarecrow, just like in the story."

"So, you're calling _me_ a witch now?" Amanda teased.

"If the Ruby Slipper fits," Francine countered.

"Hmmm...but wasn't it the _wicked_ witch who wore them?"

"Yes, but who's the _real_ wicked witch in the story; the one who got a house dropped on her or the one who scavenged from her dead body to steal the shoes and give them to Dorothy?"

"Just goes to show that you should never underestimate someone just because they have a reputation for being good and wholesome," the brunette replied pointedly.

Before Francine could respond, they were interrupted by Lee entering the room with an armload of Chinese food cartons, the Townes trailing behind him. He nodded to Francine. "Glad you made it up here. Just in time too, since this was just delivered. Who's ready to eat?"

"Well, since Francine hasn't had a balanced meal in days, I think you should let her help herself first," Amanda suggested with a sly grin on her face.

"Good call," Lee replied with a subtle wink at Amanda as he recalled the "once on the lips" crack she'd made a while back in regards to Francine and began unpacking the food.


End file.
